What a glorious book. Full transparency: I hated king of scars in many ways. Rule of Wolves? What a redemption. The more the story progressed, the better everything became. My worries after reading kos were solved.

Also, HANNE???? My god I adore him. If we get a third crow book (which we better do, have you read the ending?) I demand to see more of him.

On that note though, Nina feels off in her ending. She shouldn’t become queen of Fjerda. No. She should have embraced her new power, instead of abandoning it in a way. She and Hanne could have had an ending together without them having to live a lie.

That is my only big issue with Nina’s ending. I feel like she changed in a way that wasn’t natural to her character.

Once again, Bardugo also made me sob. I just feel like she got the hang of it again, after kos. She gripped my feelings and soul the way kos failed to, but the other books in the series also do. I’m so happy she bounced back.

Rule of Wolves isn’t Bardugos best in my opinion, but it absolutely is up par with the rest of the Grishaverse (besides kos, which was saddly dissapointing). The only technical problem I have with this book is that

we weren’t shown them finding David’s body. I feel like that would have been a really important part to show but I’m willing to look past it.

Olipa kyllä lukukokemus.

Erittäin outo mutta hauska, itsetietoinen ja syvällinen aloitus sarjalle. Todella koukuttavaa ja hiukan absurdia, mutta hyvällä tavalla. Haluan ehdottomasti lukea Tarkiaiselta lisää. Tosin pakko myöntää, että kennelin loppu tuli ehkä vähän puskista. Se tuntui vähän eri kirjalajilta, mutta voin katsoa sen läpi, sillä tämä oli hauska lukukokemus. Jotenkin Tarkinen onnistuu luomaan lukukokemuksen, joka toimii hyvänä ajatuksien tyhjentäjänä mutta samaan aikaan saa pohtimaan hahmojen ja yhteiskunnan moraaleja. 

Tärkeä osa tulevaa suomalaista historian tulkintaa.

Rehellisyyden nimissä: pelkäsin lukea tämän. Minua pelotti, mitä löytäisin, vaikka minulla olikin jo melko hyvä kuva tapahtumien kulusta. Suomalaisten vapaaehtoisten osuutta SS:n rumiin tekoihin ei voi kieltää.

Yksi iso miinus: Laitisen omaa osuutta mielestäni vähitellään Vilénin ja Jokisipilän toimesta. Minusta Laitinen kertoo moneen otteeseen olleensa osallisena ”organisointi” tehtävissä, jotka hänen kohdallaan olivat lähinnä ryöstelyä ja pakkotyön teettämistä (”pakkotyö” on tässä vähän epämääräinen termi, ei käy 100% ilmi millaista hänen määräämä työ oli luonteeltaan, mutta yleensä organisaatio-tehtävissä voidaan mielestäni käyttää pakkotyö-termiä.) Toisaalta hän myös inhosi saksalaisten suorittamia murhia ja ryöstöjä. En ole varma mikä selittäisi tätä paradoksia, sillä hänkin kyllä ryösteli (muistaakseni joskus myös saksalaisten tovereiden kanssa).  Tämän hetkinen teoriani on se, että ehkä hän ei murhannut tai muuten pahoinpidellyt esimerkiksi juutalaisia tai siviilejä. Ehkä hänen rajansa meni siinä. Tämä on toki vain spekulaatiota, lähinnä mietin tässä ääneen.

Joka tapauksessa, kirja oli hyvin silmiä avaava. Suosittelen kiinnostuneille.

I prefer the first book, but the ending of Good Girl, Bad Blood was marvelous. I think the third one will be the best. At least the set up is womderful.

I’m gonna be honest, I don’t remember the last time I was so disapointed by a book. Also, before we go into it: I just finished reading and my eyes are so tired I feel like there’s gonna be some spelling errors, but I HAVE to put my thoughts out so that I can sleep. You’ve been warned.

I feel like Bardugo’s first mistake was making the book so plot heavy. I’ve read all the previous Grishaverse books, and without a doubt, the relationships between the charactes as well as the development and inner monologue of the characters is her strong suit. She demonstrates this skill, in my opinion, in Zoya’s and Isaak’s chapters. With Nikolai? She missed the mark. There was so much to do with the character, but it all just kind of fell flat and felt shallow.

The plot? All over the place. Walking into the book, I expected a political drama about the Ravkan court, while Nikolai deals with his demon and Nina finishes her arc with Matthias and gives us that SOC thriller element. And don’t get me wrong, I did get all that, but I also got an,

in all honesty, absurd resurrection plot for the Darkling.  LEAVE THE MAN TO REST. It makes no sense for him to come back. He should have been left to Alina’s books. I truly hate this plot. Also, how the fuck is Bardugo going to bring the Darkling back without pulling Alina and Mal back into the story? Are you trying to tell me that they would not find out? That they wouldn’t act once they knew?

It makes the plot way too overwhelming!

One final major fall for this book: the pacing. This book didn’t have to be as long as it is. The begining drags, so does the time in the Fold-thing. Because these things take up so much place the ending feels rushed.

All this is not to say this book was necessarily bad. It had its good moments. The political drama had me hooked. I wish Bardugo had had the courage to lean into it more. Zoya’s character development was marvelous. I adored her. Seeing Nina bury Matthias and find her new purpose was good, though it felt a bit… empty. Regardless of the books shortcomings, the prose itself was fantastic, as usual.


I just can’t help but think that maybe the book should have been through a few more edits. Maybe Bardugo should have had more time. I think I’m as disapointed in this as I am just because I KNOW she could have done better. I’m tempted to rate this higher, but Bardugo fell short in the areas that matter the most: in the areas she normally shines in. I cannot stress this enough: I know she could have made this better!

Olisi ollu parempi, jos Pippan ja Ravin parisuhteen alku olisi jätetty toiseen kirjaan, mutta muuten todella hyvä!